Ferndale’s courthouse and police station are nearly ready for their big reveal after undergoing $2.4 million in upgrades.

After a year of working out of temporary quarters inside City Hall, police and court workers have been moving back into their permanent quarters and will spend their first full day inside the upgraded buildings on Monday.

Ferndale is hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony with tours of the police station and courthouse from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday.

The most visible changes are at the Ferndale 43rd District Court building at 305 E. Nine Mile Road, which looks significantly different outside and in.

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“When you look at the before and after pictures it is stunning how long we put up with such a poor structure,” Ferndale Mayor Dave Coulter said of the courthouse. “It was long overdue for updates.”

The formerly cramped courthouse, which was built from a former mattress factory outlet store, has gained an additional 4,000 square feet and a rebuilt modern façade.

Like the police station, changes at the courthouse include updates to make the building safer and compliant with federal regulations for accommodating visitors with disabilities.

The changes have been a long time coming. The funding for the project was started more than a dozen years ago when the court added a building fee to all tickets issued in Ferndale.

The new court building is a tonic to Ferndale District Judge Joseph Longo, who returned to work in March after five months. Longo suffered a nearly deadly Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection from a scratch he got while gardening last fall.

“I’m really looking forward to revealing the new courthouse to the public,” Longo said. “After the year I’ve had, this new building is the best get-well medicine you can have.”

Prior to the improvements, prisoners were brought into court through a small lobby area which had seating for only six people, even though the court on some days had a docket with as many as 60 cases.

“The exciting thing is I think the community as a whole will like this new structure,” Longo said. “It’s beautiful.”

Improvements at the police station, which is an east wing on City Hall and across the street from the courthouse, include a new sally port for bringing arrestees into the building and other safety features.

“We added security cameras and access control to all doors,” said City Manager April Lynch. “The biggest safety improvement was making sure arrestees were kept separate from staff and civilians in the lobby” of the police station.

Ferndale’s police station has undergone no major renovations since it was built a half-century ago, Lynch said.

Longo is looking forward to the first full day of working in the new courthouse.

“By Monday we will be up and running,” he said. “The phones will be on and we should look like the top-quality court that we are.”